the _litr_, that is, of the inner being. Beautiful women have a "joyous
fair _litr_" (Havamál, 93). An emotion has influence upon the _litr_,
and through it on the blood and the appearance of the outward body. A
sudden blushing, a sudden paleness, are among the results thereof, and
can give rise to the question, _Hefir thu lit brugdit?_--Have you changed
your _litr_? (Fornald., i. 426). To translate this with, Have you changed
colour? is absurd. The questioner sees the change of colour, and does not
need to ask the other one who cannot see it.
On account of its mythological signification and application, it is very
natural that the word _litr_ should in every-day life acquire on the one
hand the meaning of complexion in general, and on the other hand the
signification of _hamr_, guise, an earthly garb which persons skilled
in magic could put on and off. _Skipta litum_, _vixla litum_, have in
Christian times been used as synonymous with _skipta hömum_, _vixla
hömum_.
In physical death the coarser elements of an earthly person's nature are
separated from the other constituent parts. The tabernacle formed of
earth and the vegetative material united therewith are eliminated like
the animal element and remain on earth. But this does not imply that the
deceased descend without form to Hades. The form in which they travel
in "deep dales," traverse the thornfields, wade across the subterranean
rivers, or ride over the gold-clad Gjallar-bridge, is not a new creation,
but was worn by them in their earthly career. It can be none other than
their _litr_, their _umbra et imago_. It also shows distinctly what the
dead man has been in his earthly life, and what care has been bestowed
on his dust. The washing, combing, dressing, ornamenting, and supplying
with Hel-shoes of the dead body has influence upon one's looks in Hades,
on one's looks when he is to appear before his judge.
Separated from the earthly element, from the vegetative material, and
from the blood, the _lit_ is almost imponderable, and does not possess
the qualities for an intensive life, either in bliss or in torture. Five
fylkes of dead men who rode over the Gjallar-bridge produced no greater
din than Hermod alone riding on Sleipner; and the woman watching the
bridge saw that Hermod's exterior was not that of one separated from the
earthly element. It was not _litr daudra manna_ (Gylfaginning). But the
_litr_ of the dead is compensated for what it has lost. Those who in the
judgment on _daudan hvern_ are pronounced worthy of bliss are permitted
to drink from the horn decorated with the serpent-symbol of eternity, the
liquids of the three world-fountains which give life to all the world,
and thereby their _litr_ gets a higher grade of body and nobler blood
(see Nos. 72, 73). Those sentenced to torture must also drink, but it is
a drink _eitri blandinn miok_, "much mixed with venom," and it is _illu
heilli_, that is, a warning of evil. This drink also restores their
bodies, but only to make them feel the burden of torture. The liquid
of life which they imbibe in this drink is the same as that which was
thought to flow in the veins of the demons of torture. When Hadding with
his sword wounds the demon-hand which grasps after Hardgrep and tears her
into pieces (see No. 41), there flows from the wound "more venom than
blood" (_plus tabi quam cruoris_--Saxo, _Hist._, 40).
When Loder had given Ask and Embla _litr goda_, an inner body formed in
the image of the gods, a body which gives to their earthly tabernacle
a human-divine type, they received from Honer the gift which is called
_ódr_. In signification this word corresponds most closely to the Latin
_mens_, the Greek _nous_ (cp. Vigfusson's Lexicon), and means that
material which forms the kernel of a human personality, its ego, and
whose manifestations are understanding, memory, fancy, and will.
Vigfusson has called attention to the fact that the epithet _langifótr_
and _aurkonungr_, "Longleg" and "Mire-king," applied to Honer, is
applicable to the stork, and that this cannot be an accident, as the very
name _Hænir_ suggests a bird, and is related to the Greek _kuknos_, and
the Sanscrit _sakunas_ (_Corpus Poet. Bor._, i. p. cii.).[2] It should
be borne in mind in this connection that the stork even to this day is
regarded as a sacred and protected bird, and that among Scandinavians
and Germans there still exists a nursery tale telling how the stork
takes from some saga-pond the little fruits of man and brings them to
their mothers. The tale which now belongs to the nursery has its root
in the myth, where Honer gives our first parents that very gift which
in a spiritual sense makes them human beings and contains the personal
ego. It is both possible and probable that the conditions essential to
the existence of every person were conceived as being analogous with the
conditions attending the creation of the first human pair, and that the
gifts which were then given by the gods to Ask and Embla were thought
to be repeated in the case of each one of their descendants--that Honer
consequently was believed to be continually active in the same manner as
when the first human pair was created, giving to the mother-fruit the ego
that is to be. The fruit itself out of which the child is developed was
conceived as grown on the world-tree, which therefore is called _manna
mjötudr_ (Fjölsvinnsmal, 22). Every fruit of this kind (_aldin_) that
matured (and fell from the branches of the world-tree into the mythic
pond [?]) is fetched by the winged servants of the gods, and is born _á
eld_ into the maternal lap, after being mentally fructified by Honer.
Ut af hans (Mimameids) aldni
skal á eld bera
fyr kelisjúkar konur;
utar hverfa
thaz thær innar skyli,
sá er hann med mönnum mjötudr.
Above, in No. 83, it has been shown that _Lodurr_ is identical with
_Mundilföri_, the one producing fire by friction, and that _Hœnir_
and _Lodurr_ are Odin's brothers, also called _Vei_ and _Vili_. With
regard to the last name it should be remarked that its meaning of "will"
developed out of the meaning "desire," "longing," and that the word
preserved this older meaning also in the secondary sense of _cupido_,
_libido_, sexual desire. This epithet of _Lodurr_ corresponds both
with the nature of the gifts he bestows on the human child which is to
be--that is, the blood and the human, originally divine, form--and also
with his quality of fire-producer, if, as is probable, the friction-fire
had the same symbolic meaning in the Teutonic mythology as in the
Rigveda. Like Honer, Loder causes the knitting together of the human
generations. While the former fructifies the embryo developing on the
world-tree with _ódr_, it receives from Loder the warmth of the blood and
human organism. The expression _Vilja byrdr_, "_Vili's_ burden," "that
which _Vili_ has produced," is from this point of view a well-chosen and
at the same time an ambiguous paraphrase for a human body. The paraphrase
occurs in Ynglingatal (Ynglingasaga, 17). When Visbur loses his life in
the flames it is there said of him that the fire consumed his _Vilja
byrdi_, his corporal life.
To Loder's and Honer's gifts the highest Asa-god adds the best element
in human nature, _önd_, spirit, that by which a human being becomes
participator in the divine also in an inner sense, and not only as to
form. The divine must here, of course, be understood in the sense (far
different from the ecclesiastical) in which it was used by our heathen
ancestors, to whom the divine, as it can reveal itself in men, chiefly
consisted in power of thought, courage, honesty, veracity, and mercy,
but who knew no other humility than that of patiently bearing such
misfortunes as cannot be averted by human ingenuity.
These six elements, united into one in human nature, were of course
constantly in reciprocal activity. The personal kernel _ódr_ is on the
one hand influenced by _önd_, the spirit, and on the other hand by the
animal, vegetative, and corporal elements, and the personality being
endowed with will, it is responsible for the result of this reciprocal
activity. If the spirit becomes superior to the other elements then it
penetrates and sanctifies not only the personal kernel, but also the
animal, vegetative, and corporal elements. Then human nature becomes a
being that may be called divine, and deserves divine honour. When such
a person dies the lower elements which are abandoned and consigned to
the grave have been permeated by, and have become participators in, the
personality which they have served, and may thereafter in a wonderful
manner diffuse happiness and blessings around them. When Halfdan the
Black died different places competed for the keeping of his remains,
and the dispute was settled by dividing the corpse between Hadaland,
Ringerike, and Vestfold (Fagerskinna, Heimskringla). The vegetative force
in the remains of certain persons might also manifest itself in a strange
manner. Thorgrim's grave-mound in Gisle's saga was always green on one
side, and Laugarbrekku-Einar's grave-mound was entirely green both winter
and summer (Landn., ii. 7).
The elements of the dead buried in the grave continued for more or less
time their reciprocal activity, and formed a sort of unity which, if
permeated by his _ódr_ and _önd_, preserved some of his personality and
qualities. The grave-mound might in this manner contain an _alter ego_
of him who had descended to the realm of death. This _alter ego_, called
after his dwelling _haugbúi_, hill-dweller, was characterised by his
nature as a _draugr_, a branch which, though cut off from its life-root,
still maintains its consistency, but gradually, though slowly, pays
tribute to corruption and progresses toward its dissolution. In Christian
times the word _draugr_ acquired a bad, demoniacal meaning, which did not
belong to it exclusively in heathen times, to judge from the compounds
in which it is found: _eldraugr_, _herdraugr_, _hirdidraugr_, which were
used in paraphrases for "warriors;" _ódaldraugr_, "rightful owner,"
&c. The _alter ego_ of the deceased, his representative dwelling in
the grave, retained his character: was good and kind if the deceased
had been so in life; in the opposite case, evil and dangerous. As a
rule he was believed to sleep in his grave, especially in the daytime,
but might wake up in the night, or could be waked by the influence
of prayer or the powers of conjuration. Ghosts of the good kind were
_hollar vættir_, of the evil kind _úvættir_. Respect for the fathers and
the idea that the men of the past were more pious and more noble than
those of the present time caused the _alter egos_ of the fathers to be
regarded as beneficent and working for the good of the race, and for this
reason family grave-mounds where the bones of the ancestors rested were
generally near the home. If there was no grave-mound in the vicinity, but
a rock or hill, the _alter egos_ in question were believed to congregate
there when something of importance to the family was impending. It
might also happen that the lower elements, when abandoned by _ódr_ and
_önd_, became an _alter ego_ in whom the vegetative and animal elements
exclusively asserted themselves. Such an one was always tormented by
animal desire of food, and did not seem to have any feeling for or memory
of bonds tied in life. Saxo (_Hist._, 244) gives a horrible account of
one of this sort. Two foster-brothers, Asmund and Asvid, had agreed that
if the one died before the other the survivor should confine himself
in the foster-brother's grave-chamber and remain there. Asvid died and
was buried with horse and dog. Asmund kept his agreement, and ordered
himself to be confined in the large, roomy grave, but discovered to his
horror that his foster-brother had become a _haugbúi_ of the last-named
kind, who, after eating horse and dog, attacked Asmund to make him a
victim of his hunger. Asmund conquered the _haugbúi_, cut off his head,
and pierced his heart with a pole to prevent his coming to life again.
Swedish adventurers who opened the grave to plunder it freed Asmund from
his prison. In such instances as this it must have been assumed that the
lower elements of the deceased consigned to the grave were never in his
lifetime sufficiently permeated by his _ódr_ and _önd_ to enable these
qualities to give the corpse an impression of the rational personality
and human character of the deceased. The same idea is the basis of belief
of the Slavic people in the vampire. In one of this sort the vegetative
element united with his dust still asserts itself, so that hair and
nails continue to grow as on a living being, and the animal element,
which likewise continues to operate in the one buried, visits him with
hunger and drives him in the night out of the grave to suck the blood of
surviving kinsmen.
The real personality of the dead, the one endowed with _litr_, _ódr_,
and _önd_, was and remained in the death kingdom, although circumstances
might take place that would call him back for a short time. The drink
which the happy dead person received in Hades was intended not only to
strengthen his _litr_, but also to soothe that longing which the earthly
life and its memories might cause him to feel. If a dearly-beloved
kinsman or friend mourned the deceased too violently, this sorrow
disturbed his happiness in the death kingdom, and was able to bring
him back to earth. Then he would visit his grave-mound, and he and his
_alter ego_, the _haugbúi_, would become one. This was the case with
Helge Hundingsbane (Helge Hund., ii. 40, &c.). The sorrow of Sigrun, his
beloved, caused him to return from Valhal to earth and to ride to his
grave, where Sigrun came to him and wanted to rest in his arms during the
night. But when Helge had told her that her tears pierced his breast with
pain, and had assured her that she was exceedingly dear to him, and had
predicted that they together should drink the sorrow-allaying liquids of
the lower world, he rode his way again, in order that, before the crowing
of the cock, he might be back among the departed heroes. Prayer was
another means of calling the dead back. At the entrance of his deceased
mother's grave-chamber Svipdag beseeches her to awake. Her ashes kept in
the grave-chamber (_er til moldar er komin_) and her real personality
from the realm of death (_er ór ljodheimum er lidin_) then unite, and
Groa speaks out of the grave to her son (Grogaldr., i. 2). A third means
of revoking the dead to earth lay in conjuration. But such a use of
conjuration was a great sin, which relegated the sinner to the demons.
(Cp. Saxo's account of Hardgrep.)
Thus we understand why the dead descended to Hades and still inhabited
the grave-mounds. One died "to Hel" and "to the grave" at the same time.
That of which earthly man consisted, in addition to his corporal garb,
was not the simple being, "the soul," which cannot be divided, but there
was a combination of factors, which in death could be separated, and of
which those remaining on earth, while they had long been the covering of
a personal kernel (_ódr_), could themselves in a new combination form
another ego of the person who had descended to Hades.
But that too consisted of several factors, _litr_, _ódr_, and _önd_, and
they were not inseparably united. We have already seen that the sinner,
sentenced to torture, dies a second death in the lower world before he
passes through the Na-gates, the death from Hel to Nifelhel, so that he
becomes a _nár_, a corpse in a still deeper sense than that which _nár_
has in a physical sense. The second death, like the first (physical),
must consist in the separation of one or more of the factors from the
being that dies. And in the second death, that which separates itself
from the damned one and changes his remains into a lower-world _nár_,
must be those factors that have no blame in connection with his sins,
and consequently should not suffer his punishment, and which in their
origin are too noble to become the objects of the practice of demons
in the art of torturing. The venom drink which the damned person has to
empty deprives him of that image of the gods in which he was made, and
of the spirit which was the noble gift of the Asa-father. Changed into a
_monster_, he goes to his destiny fraught with misfortunes.
The idea of a regeneration was not foreign to the faith of the Teutonic
heathens. To judge from the very few statements we have on this point,
it would seem that it was only the very best and the very worst who
were thought to be born anew in the present world. Gulveig was born
again several times by the force of her own evil will. But it is only
ideal persons of whom it is said that they are born again--_e.g._, Helge
Hjorvardson, Helge Hundingsbane, and Olaf Geirstadaralf, of whom the
last was believed to have risen again in Saint Olaf. With the exception
of Gulveig, the statements in regard to the others from Christian times
are an echo from the heathen Teutonic doctrine which it would be most
interesting to become better acquainted with--also from the standpoint
of comparative Aryan mythology, since this same doctrine appears in a
highly-developed form in the Asiatic-Aryan group of myths.
[2] There is a story of the creation of man by three wandering gods, who
become in mediæval stories Jesus and SS. Peter and Paul walking among
men, as in Champfleury's pretty apologue of the _bonhomme misére_, so
beautifully illustrated by Legros. In the eddic legend one of these
gods is called _Hœne_; he is the _speech-giver_ of Wolospa, and is
described in praises taken from lost poems as "the long-legged one"
[_langifotr_], "the lord of the ooze" [_aurkonungr_]. Strange epithets,
but easily explainable when one gets at the etymology of Hœne = _hohni_
= Sansc. _sakunas_ = Gr. _kuknos_ = the white bird, swan, or stork,
that stalks along in the mud, lord of the marsh; and it is now easy to
see that this bird is the Creator walking in chaos, brooding over the
primitive mish-mash or tohu-bohu, and finally hatching the egg of the
world. Hohni is also, one would fancy, to be identified with Heimdal,
_the walker_, who is also a creator-god, who sleeps _more lightly than a
bird_, who is also the "_fair Anse_," and _the "whitest of the Anses,"_
the "waker of the gods," a celestial chanticleer as it were (Vigfusson,
_Corpus Poeticum Boreale_, vol. i., Introduction, p. cii., quoted by the
translator).
V.
THE IVALDE RACE.
96.
SVIPDAG AND GROA.
Groa's son Svipdag is mentioned by this name in two Old Norse songs,
Grogalder and Fjölsvinnsmal, which as Bugge has shown, are mutually
connected, and describe episodes from the same chain of events.
The contents of Grogalder are as follows:
Groa is dead when the event described in the song takes place. Svipdag is
still quite young. Before her death she has told him that he is to go to
her grave and call her if he needs her help. The grave is a grave-chamber
made of large flat stones raised over a stone floor, and forming when
seen from the outside a mound which is furnished with a door (str. 1, 15).
Svipdag's father has married a second time. The stepmother commands her
stepson to go abroad and find _Menglödum_, "those fond of ornaments."
From Fjölsvinnsmal we learn that one of those called by this name is a
young maid who becomes Svipdag's wife. Her real name is not given: she
is continually designated as _Menglöd_, Menglad, one of "those fond of
ornaments," whom Svipdag has been commanded to find.
This task seems to Svipdag to exceed his powers. It must have been one of
great adventures and great dangers, for he now considers it the proper
time to ask his deceased mother for help. He has become suspicious of
his stepmother's intentions; he considers her _lævis_ (cunning), and her
proposition is "a cruel play which she has put before him" (str. 3).
He goes to Groa's grave-chamber, probably in the night (_verda auflgari
allir a nottum dauthir_--Helge Hund., ii. 51), bids her wake, and reminds
her of her promise. That of Groa which had become dust (_er til moldar
er komin_), and that of her which had left this world of man and gone to
the lower world (_er ór ljódheimum lidin_), become again united under the
influence of maternal love and of the son's prayer, and Svipdag hears out
of the grave-chamber his mother's voice asking him why he has come. He
speaks of the errand on which he has been sent by his stepmother (str. 3,
4).
The voice from the grave declares that long journeys lie before Svipdag
if he is to reach the goal indicated. It does not, however, advise him to
disobey the command of his stepmother, but assures him that if he will
but patiently look for a good outcome of the matter, then the norn will
guide the events into their right course (str. 4).
The son then requests his mother to sing protecting incantations over
him. She is celebrated in mythology as one mighty in incantations of the
good kind. It was Groa that sang healing incantations over Thor when with
a wounded forehead he returned from the conflict with the giant Hrungner
(Gylfag.).
Groa hears his prayer, and sings from the grave an incantation of
protection against the dangers which her prophetic vision has discovered
on those journeys that now lie before Svipdag: first, the incantation
that can inspire the despondent youth who lacks confidence in himself
with courage and reliance in his own powers. It is, Groa says, the same
incantation as another mother before her sang over a son whose strength
had not yet been developed, and who had a similar perilous task to
perform. It is an incantation, says Groa, which Rind, Vale's mother,
sang over _Ránr_. This synonym of Vale is of saga-historical interest.
Saxo calls Vale _Bous_, the Latinised form for Beowulf, and Beowulf's
grave-mound, according to the Old English poem which bears his name, is
situated on _Hrones næss_, _Ránr's_ ness. Here too a connection between
Vale and the name _Ránr_ is indicated.
Groa's second incantation contains a prayer that when her son, joyless,
travels his paths and sees scorn and evil before his eyes, he may always
be protected by Urd's _lokur_ (an ambiguous expression, which may on the
one hand refer to the bonds and locks of the goddess of fate, on the
other hand to Groa's own phrophetic magic song: _lokur_ means both songs
of a certain kind and locks and prisons).
On his journey Svipdag is to cross rivers, which with swelling floods
threaten his life; but Groa's third incantation commands these rivers
to flow down to Hel and to fall for her son. The rivers which have
their course to Hel (_falla til Heljar hedan_--Grimnersmal, 28) are
subterranean rivers rising on the Hvergelmer mountain (59, 93).
Groa's fourth and fifth incantations indicate that Svipdag is to
encounter enemies and be put in chains. Her songs are then to operate
in such a manner that the hearts of the foes are softened into
reconciliation, and that the chains fall from the limbs of her son. For
this purpose she gives him that power which is called "_Leifnir's_ fires"
(see No. 38), which loosens fetters from enchanted limbs (str. 9, 10).
Groa's sixth incantation is to save Svipdag from perishing in a gale on
the sea. In the great world-mill (_ludr_) which produces the maelstrom,
ocean currents, ebb and flood tide (see Nos. 79-82), calm and war are to
"gang thegither" in harmony, be at Svipdag's service and prepare him a
safe voyage.
The seventh incantation that comes from the grave-chamber speaks of a
journey which Svipdag is to make over a mountain where terrible cold
reigns. The song is to save him from becoming a victim of the frost there.